Chayei Sarah 5772 Volume XIX Number 8 Toras Aish Thoughts From Across the Torah Spectrum in goodness? How can the Torah say that Abraham had CHIEF RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS been blessed with everything? Covenant & Conversation The answer is given by the parsha itself, and it is very unexpected. Seven times Abraham had been ur parsha contains the most serene description of promised the land. Here is just one of those occasions: old age and dying anywhere in the Torah: "Then The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, OAbraham breathed his last and died at a good old "Raise your eyes, and, from the place where you are age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered now [standing], look to the north, to the south, to the to his people" (Gen. 25: 8). There is an earlier verse, no east, and to the west. All the land that you see I will give less moving: "Abraham was old, well advanced in years, to you and your offspring forever. Go, walk through and G-d had blessed Abraham with everything" (Gen. the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to 24: 1). you" (Gen. 13: 14-17). Nor was this serenity the gift of Abraham alone. Yet by the time Sarah dies, Abraham has no Rashi was puzzled by the description of Sarah - "Sarah land at all, and he is forced to prostrate himself before lived to be 127 years old: [These were] the years of the local Hittites and beg for permission to acquire even Sarah's life" (23: 1). The last phrase seems completely a single field with a cave in which to bury his wife. Even superfluous. Why not just tell us that Sarah lived to the then he has to pay what is clearly a massively inflated age of 127? What is added by saying that "these were price: four hundred silver shekels. This does not sound the years of Sarah's life"? Rashi is forced to the like the fulfilment of the promise of "all the land, north, conclusion that the first half of the verse talks about the south, east and west." quantity of her life, how long she lived, while the second Then, in relation to children, Abraham is tells us about the quality of her life. "They - the years promised four times: "I will make you into a great she lived - were all equal in goodness." nation" (12: 2). "I will make your offspring like the dust Yet how is any of this conceivable? Abraham of the earth" (13: 16). G-d "took [Abram] outside and and Sarah were commanded by G-d to leave everything said, 'Look at the sky and count the stars. See if you that was familiar: their land, their home, their family, and can count them.' [G-d] then said to him, 'That is how travel to an unknown land. No sooner had they arrived [numerous] your descendants will be.'" (15: 5). "No than they were forced to leave because of famine. longer shall you be called Abram. Your name shall Twice, Abraham's life was at risk when, driven into become Abraham, for I have set you up as the father of exile, he worried that he would be killed so that the local many nations" (17: 5). ruler could take Sarah into his harem. Sarah herself had Yet he had to wait so long for even a single son to say that she was Abraham's sister, and had to suffer by Sarah that when G-d insisted that she would indeed the indignity of being taken into a stranger's household. have a son, both Abraham (17: 17) and Sarah (18: 12) Then there was the long wait for a child, made laughed. (The sages differentiated between these two even more painful by the repeated Divine promise that episodes, saying that Abraham laughed with joy, Sarah they would have as many children as the stars of the with disbelief. In general, in Genesis, the verb tz-ch-k, to sky or the dust of the earth. Then came the drama of laugh, is fraught with ambiguity). the birth of Ishmael to Sarah's servant Hagar. This One way or another, whether we think of aggravated the relation between the two women, and children or the land - the two key Divine promises to eventually Abraham had to send Hagar and Ishmael Abraham and Sarah - the reality fell far short of what away. One way or another, this was a source of pain to they might have felt entitled to expect. That, however, is all four people involved. precisely the meaning and message of Chayei Sarah. In Then there was the agony of the binding of it Abraham does two things: he buys the first plot in the Isaac. Abraham was faced with the prospect of losing land of Canaan, and he arranges for the marriage of the person most precious to him, the child he had Isaac. One field and a cave was, for Abraham, enough waited for so long. One way or another, neither for the text to say that "G-d had blessed Abraham with Abraham nor Sarah had an easy life. Theirs were lives everything." One child, Isaac, by then married and with of trial, in which their faith was tested at many points. children (Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born; Isaac How can Rashi say that all of Sarah's years were equal was sixty when the twins, Jacob and Esau, were born; 2 Toras Aish a half chapters of the Bible. Chapter 23 of the Book of TORAS AISH IS A WEEKLY PARSHA Genesis deals with Sarah's death and Abraham's NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTED VIA EMAIL protracted negotiations for the purchase of a grave for AND THE WEB AT WWW.AISHDAS.ORG/TA. his beloved wife, chapter 24 details the painstaking FOR MORE INFO EMAIL [email protected] search by Abraham's trusted servant Eliezer, for a The material presented in this publication was collected from email subscriptions, computer archives and various websites. It is being suitable wife for Isaac, and the first half of chapter 25 presented with the permission of the respective authors. Toras describes the death and burial of Abraham himself, Aish is an independent publication, and does not necessarily reflect concluding with the death of his son Ishmael. Is it not the views of any synagogue or organization. strange that a portion which is largely dedicated to the TO DEDICATE THIS NEWSLETTER PLEASE CALL death of our major protagonists is named "The Life of (973) 277-9062 OR EMAIL [email protected] Sarah"? Moreover, is there an overarching connecting and Abraham was 175 when he died) was enough for thread which unites the two major pursuits in our Abraham to die in peace. portions: the acquisition of a burial plot and the Lao-Tzu, the Chinese sage, said that a journey "acquisition" of Rebekah? of a thousand miles begins with a single step. To that Let us begin with our second question, mindful Judaism adds, "It is not for you to complete the work but of the fact that Sarah's burial plot, the Tomb of the neither are you free to desist from it" (Avot 2: 16). G-d Patriarchs in Hebron is the first Hebrew land acquisition himself said of Abraham, "For I have chosen him, so in the Promised Land of Israel. that he will direct his children and his household after We read in last week's portion about the him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right "Covenant Between the Pieces," the unique covenantal and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham partnership between G-d and Abraham in which the what he has promised him" (Gen. 18: 19). patriarch is promised, nay guaranteed, two things: The meaning of this is clear. If you ensure that progeny and land. Abraham will have progeny more your children will continue to live for what you have lived numerous than the stars and his children will inherit a for, then you can have faith that they will continue your land whose borders will extend from the Nile to the journey until eventually they reach the destination. Euphrates (Gen. 15: 18). Abraham did not need to see all the land in Jewish If indeed the land belonged to Abraham, why hands, nor did he need to see the Jewish people did he go to such lengths to convince the Hittites to sell become numerous. He had taken the first step. He had it to him referring to them as his "masters", bowing begun the task, and he knew that his descendants down to them (Gen. 23: 12) and eventually paying them would continue it. He was able to die serenely because the exorbitant price of 400 shekels of silver? Is this the he had faith in G-d and faith that others would complete way G-d bestows His gifts? what he had begun. The same was surely true of Sarah. Apparently, a covenantal promise must be seen To place your life in G-d's hands, to have faith as a mutual endeavor in which G-d gives guarantees, that whatever happens to you happens for a reason, to but only after the recipient earns that Divine gift. We know that you are part of a larger narrative, and to must be morally worthy of the gift: The covenant is believe that others will continue what you began, is to predicated upon our compassionate righteousness and achieve a satisfaction in life that cannot be destroyed by moral justice (Gen.